Author: Lauren McMenemy

Hello, children of the dark. Over on the other side of the pond from me today, as I write this, it’s your day of gratitude. We don’t do that whole thing over here, nor where I grew up, and truth be told I’m far too awkwardly British to express emotion in that way. Still, let me take this moment to say I am thankful to Stuart for continuing to run (and fund!) this here site, to my TWF predecessor Stephanie Ellis for vouching for me taking over from her last year, and to you, dear children of the dark, for continue to show up every week to read and celebrate some of the best emerging writers in dark speculative fiction. We may not have many of the big and famous names, but we have a strong and vibrant community of writers who do this because they love it and they want to share. I love that we can provide a platform from which to emerge into the darkness, kicking and screaming and trying to make voices heard. Thank you, all of you. (And if you want to show your own thanks to Stuart, consider becoming a Patreon—it really does make a difference to us!)

Now, before I need to go and shower off all this emotion, let’s move to this week’s edition where Rodney G Hatfield is dealing with an influx of strange critters. Then we’ve got three fabulous tasty morsels:

• Nika Anuk relives some childhood scaries, 
• Lionel Ray Green just wants some attention, and 
• Alan Moskowitz has ghost troubles.

Special congrats to Nika—she tells me this is the first time she’s been published in English, her second language!

And just finally (in case you missed it), here’s a quick recap on the new processes at TWF Towers:

• Drabbles, serials, and unholy trinities are still open all the damn time, and we still have an insatiable need for them
• Short story submissions will only be open in 2-week seasonal windows, and you can find those details on our submissions page; next one opens on 1 January
• Special editions submissions are still open in their own seasonal windows, and again the details are on the submissions page

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Hello, children of the dark. 

Thanks for your understanding and patience with the short story changes; this gig is mainly walking a tricky tightrope, and it’s always nice when I shout into the void and it seems like it’s been heard!

In case you missed it, here’s a quick recap on the new processes at TWF Towers:

• Drabbles, serials, and unholy trinities are still open all the damn time, and we still have an insatiable need for them
• Short story submissions will only be open in 2-week seasonal windows, and you can find those details on our submissions page; next one opens on 1 January
• Special editions submissions are still open in their own seasonal windows, and again the details are on the submissions page

Any short stories submitted to us outside of these new seasonal windows will be returned unread; we will NOT be keeping them on file for you. You’ll need to resubmit, if you are still interested in doing so, when we announce that we’re reopen. Make sure you’re following Horror Tree (and me!) on social media for announcements.

As for everything in the queue, we’re working our way through them. Both Stuart and I have had the real world intrude on our available time quite massively, but we’re doing our best to get things on track. 

Personally, I am bloody exhausted—but also excited to see the UK Ghost Story Festival will be back in February! Expect announcements of guests in the next few weeks…

Now to this week’s edition and Cassandra Daucus, a regular drabbler in these pages, has expanded her world to bring us a short story set in the underground world of pesky pixies. Then we come back to street level for three delicious quick bites:

• Nikki Stanier is climbing down, 
• Francesco Levato needs stitches, and 
• Dawn Colclasure discovers the dangers of reading.

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Hello, children of the dark. You know how we’re all told to do big, scary things every now and then? Well, last week I did a big, scary thing I never thought I would do ever again: I started working full time, in an office, in the Big Bad City. Before you get too worried for my sanity, I can confirm it’s a temporary arrangement while one of my freelance clients recruits for a new permanent team leader (and, heck, I needed the money). It has, however, reminded me of a few things:

• Commuting into London is still hell, but actually this one isn’t too bad as the tube ride is relatively quick
• Oxford Circus in the lead-up to Christmas is worse than hell, especially later in the week, and especially when there are tourists around, but at least the lights are pretty
• I actually quite like being in an office around other people?!
• I can do hard shit when I put my mind to it

And speaking of hard shit, a reminder of the Big Scary Decision we made/announced last week: we’ve made changes to our submissions process for short stories only. If you have submitted a short story since we reopened just a couple of months ago, rest assured we have your piece and it’s with the team for review. Please also remember that we all do this in a volunteering capacity, and we have A LOT to get through, so it will take us some time to respond. Patience, please! If you do seek publication elsewhere and your story is accepted before we get a chance to respond, please let us know so we can pull the story from consideration. We don’t take reprints. 

A recap of how to submit to TWF:

• Drabbles, serials, and unholy trinities are still open all the damn time, and we still have an insatiable need for them
• Short story submissions will only be open in 2-week seasonal windows, and you can find those details on our submissions page; next one opens on 1 January
• Special editions submissions are still open in their own seasonal windows, and again the details are on the submissions page

Any short stories submitted to us outside of these new seasonal windows will be returned unread; we will NOT be keeping them on file for you. You’ll need to resubmit, if you are still interested in doing so, when we announce that we’re reopen. Make sure you’re following Horror Tree on all the socials!

As I said last week, I’m sorry we have to be such hard-asses about this, but we can only afford to publish one short story every week—and at the current rate of submissions, it will take us years to get through everything we have. I hope you understand why we are making this change. We want to protect your great work while making sure we can keep up with spotlighting the best of you.

Let’s turn away from hard-asses and towards the darkest corners, and this week’s edition has Addison Smith needs to keep quiet amidst the debris. That is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Sarah Elliott needs a defibrillator, 
• LN Hunter needs a reboot, and 
• RJ Meldrum needs a routine.

Over to you, Stuart.​

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Hello, children of the dark. I promised an update to you all on our short story submissions situation, so here’s the tl;dr—we are closed to short story submissions for the rest of this year, and will only be open next year in 2-week windows once every quarter.

More detail? Here we go.

At present, we have close to 70 stories working their way through our review process—and we only reopened to submissions two months ago, after having been overwhelmed around this time last year and ending up fully booked for almost an entire year. We really don’t want that to happen again, so we tried being much more selective and hard-lined about what we choose to accept… But it hasn’t been enough. 

So after much thought and discussion, we’ve decided to change the way we handle our submissions processes. Pay attention, now: this is important.

>>We will still be open year-round for drabbles, serials, and unholy trinities.

HOWEVER

>>Short story submissions will be open in 2-week seasonal windows as follows:

• Winter: 1-15 January
• Spring: 1-15 April
• Summer: 1-15 July
• Fall: 1-15 October

Any short stories submitted to us outside of those windows will be returned unread, with a note to resubmit during the next window. This also makes it doubly important that you mark any submissions to our special editions (Valentines, Summer, Halloween, Christmas) as being for the appropriate edition, otherwise your story won’t be read. 

I’m sorry we have to be such hard-asses about this, but we can only afford to publish one short story every week—and at the current rate of submissions, it will take us years to get through everything we have. I hope you understand why we are making this change. We want to protect your great work while making sure we can keep up with spotlighting the best of you.

Right. Hard hat off, let’s get to the matter at hand: Hilary Ayshford sees some echoes of the past in this week’s TWF main menu. It’s followed by three delicious quick bites:

• KL Bexon is gripped by grief,
• Cassandra Daucus is perplexed by a new room feature, and 
• Nicolette Ward gets her dancing shoes on.

Finally, to those on my side of the pond: remember, remember, the 5th of November. May your bonfire night be bright and merry. 

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Hello, children of the dark. Quickly, because I’m still prepping for my vampire extravaganza and I’m already running late with this week’s edition (sorry, boss!).

I know I promised last week that Stuart and I would revisit the short stories submission windows, but truth is we just haven’t had a chance. (Well, I haven’t yet poked him – see previous paragraph about time.) Will try to sort out our approach before the next issue. 

And before we jump to this week’s TWF menu, it would be remiss of a dark fiction zine to not wish you all a happy Halloween, blessed Samhain, and all other celebrations of the dark. May the veil part as much as you desire on Tuesday night. 

Now, to the matter at hand: Emma Burnett brings us one helluva dark futuristic speculative tale. Honestly, this one is magnificent, and it’s followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Victoria Savage tackles a take on a TikTok trend,
• Amanda Brimley needs to find a recluse, and 
• Leigh-Anne Burley likes broken things.

PS the TWF Halloween special is ready to go; keep an eye on these pages in two days’ time!

Over to you, Stuart.

Here we are, standing at the edge of October, teetering on the brink of the extraordinary. The leaves have donned their most vibrant hues, and the air is alive with whispers of the coming Halloween. I’m brimming with anticipation and excitement, ready to share with you a collection of tales that embody the spirit of this captivating season.

October is a month of transformation, a time when the world around us shifts into a tapestry of color and shadows. Did you know that October was once the eighth month of the Roman calendar, and its name is derived from ‘octo,’ meaning eight? It’s a month that, historically, has been a bridge between the harvest’s abundance and winter’s quietude, and it’s the perfect backdrop for the stories we’ve curated for you in this week’s ‘Trembling With Fear.’

The stories are ready, the shadows are deepening, and the stage is set for a journey into the heart of the season. Are you ready to step into the dark?

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Hello, children of the dark. I don’t know about you, but I am bloody exhausted. And I know I say that pretty much every week, but it’s super bad this week. However, I have wisdom to impart—aka I must give you some updates on our submission guidelines—so bear with me as I muddle through this week’s issue. I’ll be fancy and put in some sub-heads to make this easier on your eyes.

Submissions for special editions

If you’ve subbed to one of our special editions, or sent over a serial or unholy trinity, you no doubt have met our wonderful Special Editions Editor, Shalini. We’re so lucky to have her. (I won’t mention that she took a postcard for my vampire event to see Anne Rice’s grave this week, because that would be in poor taste.)

Anyways, Shalini has been absolutely inundated with submissions for the upcoming Halloween special, so please be patient as she makes her way through them. Which leads me onto this little note…

Technically, our special editions have tight submission windows. We tend to wave things through if, say, a Christmas story is subbed in July; we’ll just file it away to review closer to the time. But given Halloween and Christmas come so close together, I just wanted to remind you that submissions to special editions will only be looked at a few weeks out from publication, regardless of when you submit it. This is because Shalini needs to look at the special edition as a whole to make sure there’s not, for example, three stories about pumpkins and none about witches for Halloween. So feel free to submit your special editions outside of the window if you want to, but please know that you won’t hear anything until about a week out from its relevant publication time. Patience, my children. Patience.

The avalanche of short story submissions

Which brings me to another submissions dilemma we’re having at the moment. About this time last year, we had to close to short story submissions because we were scheduled for many, many, many months and it wouldn’t be fair to accept any further stories at that point. Regular readers will know we reopened those submissions at the beginning of September – just six weeks ago. Dear children, you have been very, very busy submitting again—and we’re inundated. So much so, that Stuart and I are having serious discussions about perhaps making our short story openings happen in windows rather than perennially. Stay tuned for more news on that in future editions, but please be patient (again!) if you’ve subbed a short story to us in the last month. We are but a tiny team of volunteers, and we’re doing our best to get through a vast amount of stories. 

Now, to the reason you’re here…

To the matter at hand: Kenny Togunloju tells us a ghost story as our main menu item this week. This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Vincent O’Neill tries to get a refund,
• Nikki Stanier can be found in an old chatroom, and 
• Ron Capshaw faces his demons.

And my final word: Fangs. I promise, this is the last time you’ll hear from me in these pages about vampires! My next event, Writing the Occult: Vampires, happens next Saturday, 28 October 2023. We’ve timed it so fangbangers across the Northern Hemisphere have a chance of attending at least some of it live (sorry, ‘Straya and NZ), and we’re also recording all sessions so you can catch up on what you miss. Recordings are only for ticketholders, though, and won’t be shared anywhere else, so if you haven’t joined the nest yet and want to, act fast! Tickets are over on Eventbrite, or full speaker details and bios are on this website. You can also follow @societyofinkslingers on Instagram for deep dives on the sessions.

Now it’s over to an (I think?) MBA finals-finished Stuart!

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Hello, children of the dark. I went on a righteous rant last week, so I’ll spare you that torture this time around. Also, Stuart is in the midst of MBA hell so I don’t want to give him too much to read. Let’s skip the guff and get straight to the good stuff.

This week’s TWF menu features a magical, forested short story from Vivian Chou. This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Nicolette Ward makes friends on the bus,
• Steven Holding channels the inner geezer MC, and 
• Richard Meldrum is here to help.

Finally, a repeat of recent quick notes on the short story submissions. We have been honoured and excited to see the submissions come in thick and fast since we reopened last month, but we are getting multiple subs from individual authors. Given the volume of submissions we’re receiving, we will only be able to accept one story per author for now. Of course, we are always seeking more tiny slices of darkness in the form of drabbles. 

PPS it’s almost time for vampires! I’m running an online day of talks and workshops from writers, academics, and folklorists examining the vampire from every angle. Yes, we’ll talk about Dracula, but also gothic feminism, Anne Rice adaptations, the folkloric origins and how those turn up in literature, world-building for vampires, and an awesome panel (Jewelle Gomez, Scott J Moses, Katalina Watt, A.W. Earl, moderated by Rebecca Wojturska from Haunt Publishing) looking at how our own experiences can help turn the tropes on their heads. Join the nest, won’t you? Tickets are £45+bf (approx $55) and available here.

Now it’s over to a very frazzled bossman—your turn, Stuart!

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: I’ve had a few responses to this and am eager to more! Here is what I typed last week: I’m one month away from my current 2-class MBA workload and another two and a half months from being done with the program as long as my math is right. So, one of my focuses will be to grow our YouTube channel. What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]!

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Hello, children of the dark. I wonder, how many of you turn to the dark side of fiction for catharsis? I ask because Tuesday marks World Mental Health Day—a global movement spearheaded by the World Foundation of Mental Health—and I know part of the lure for me is indeed a way to process my own issues and fears. Whether it’s writing or reading, I find that immersing myself into a fictional world can help me to confront those things which I find challenging in the Real World. Is it the same for you?

I ask this not just because of the big day of global awareness, but also because I’ve had a challenging week in terms of mental health. I’ve said in these pages before that I have many, shall we say, diagnoses of the neurological kind. I’m a long-term chronic depression and anxiety patient, and have more recently (finally) been diagnosed with ADHD, sensory processing disorder, and dyspraxia, as well as some ASD traits. And while I’ve been processing and adjusting to those more recent diagnoses, I’ve also been nursing our beloved black rabbit through palliative care. On Tuesday, we lost her. We had the vet send her over the rainbow bridge; she’d had enough, it’d gotten too much for her. And, children of the dark, I really hate not having her around. She was my heart, my soul, my emotional support. She was so important to my mental health as well as much loved and spoiled, and as I write this the day after we lost her, I keep thinking I can hear her shuffling around. It’s heartbreaking. But at the same time, my inner monologue is telling me “ffs, it’s just a pet”. Those damn voices can sense vulnerability, and they intend on making the most of the chinks in the armour. (Note to self: I need to change all my bios to amend references to bun.)

For those who are using mental health in their writing, I implore you to use a sensitivity reader before submitting your stories to publications; you can access these via the HWA, which launched a mental health initiative last year (more on that here). We’re getting an increasing number of submissions to TWF that involve mental illness, and often the matter is not handled sensitively. Mental illness is not a punchline. It can be part of a character’s back story, but it should not be the only reason they are the bad guy. If your story’s twist is “oh hey turns out she was ‘crazy’ and got locked away”, then you are not writing with sensitivity. Do better. 

And dear children of the dark, look after yourselves please. This year’s theme for World Mental Health Day is “mental health is a universal human right”—and it really, really is. You have the right to support, the right to talk, and the right to ask for help. So please ask for help. And continue to seek solace in the dark of our pages and the plethora of others around the internet.

You matter, and we love you.

Turning to this week’s TWF menu, and our short story is a stunning meditation on PTSD from Masimba Musodza. This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Stéphane G. Perahim receives an inheritance,
• A.R Carrasco considers the rules of an academic discipline, and 
• Corinne Pollard finds it’s definitely not ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

Finally, a repeat of last week’s quick note on the short story submissions. We have been honoured and excited to see the submissions come in thick and fast since we reopened last month, but we are getting multiple subs from individual authors. Given the volume of submissions we’re receiving, we will only be able to accept one story per author for now. Make sure you’re giving us your very best to maximise chances of acceptance!

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: I’ve had a few responses to this and am eager to more! Here is what I typed last week: I’m one month away from my current 2-class MBA workload and another two and a half months from being done with the program as long as my math is right. So, one of my focuses will be to grow our YouTube channel. What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]!

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.